Last month, British Petroleum (BP) pleaded guilty to 14 criminal charges, agreeing to pay $4.5 billion (U.S.) for the deaths and ecological devastation ignited by its 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Claiming that BP’s negligence in sealing the well led to both the lethal explosion and subsequent rig collapse, the U.S. government further claimed the company covered up the severity of the spill, misleading both Congress and investors about the rate and volume of oil spewing from its well.

For nearly three months, the runaway gusher vomited black crude one mile below the gulf’s surface, leading to the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

According to the New York Times, the government charged senior top BP officers aboard the rig, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, with manslaughter in connection with each of the 11 employees who perished in the explosion.

Prosecutors also charged David Rainey, BP’s former vice-president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, with obstruction of a congressional inquiry and making false statements regarding the rate of the spill.

As part of its plea agreement, BP admitted to withholding documents from and providing false and misleading information to a congressional investigation. While Rainey was publicly repeating BP’s estimated oil leak rate of 5,000 barrels a day, government and independent scientists later found more than 60,000 barrels a day were flowing into the gulf during that time.

Not exactly a little white lie.

In fact, it was a big, oil-drenched, deepwater black lie.

And this does not, by any means, close the book on the BP oil spill.

The criminal settlement does not impact what BP might be compelled to pay out in civil penalties, including up to $21 billion for violations of the Clean Water Act, and to compensate gulf coast fishermen, boat operators and others economically affected by the debacle.

While the BP settlement is the largest of its kind, it is, according to environmental groups, a mere pittance in terms of BP’s overall earnings, which exceeded $5 billion (U.S.) last quarter. Moreover, the settlement does not appear to address the ecological fallout from Corexit, the highly toxic dispersant used at unprecedented volumes and depths during the crisis — in violation of guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As New Orleans-based environmental lawyer Stuart Smith has argued, BP, with the “blessing” of the U.S. government, covered up the massive, unprecedented spraying of Corexit, dubbed the “Agent Orange” of the oceans by one EPA official, in hopes that “pushing the oil out of sight would also put it out of mind.”

According to Smith, who is handling more than 1,000 legal cases related to the BP oil catastrophe, “Never has so much dispersant — some 1.8 million gallons — been deployed . . . where its impact has never been studied.”

A recent study suggests that Corexit has contaminated plankton in the gulf and is now moving up the food chain. Brian Crother, a biologist at Southeastern Louisiana University, has commented that such research potentially points to “something really disastrous happening in the gulf.”

While much of the world might be relived that BP got “spanked,” and can now have some sort of “closure” on the event, there are thousands of persons — and vast aquatic ecosystems — for whom this fight continues.

Constituting a kind of “eco-citizenry,” the individuals represented by Smith in lawsuits against BP continue to be critical actors in this unfolding saga — they, along with many others, are the ones marshalling data on the noxious dispersants used and helping to chronicle the effects of the submerged oil on the gulf’s life systems.

These environmental disasters are unique in that the effects unfold over several years, even decades. They require a different kind of commitment, perseverance and stamina among the citizens who take them on. This spill cannot be something that BP can be permitted to simply sweep away under the “bad year” banner and move on — this horror may prove to be a “bad decade” or “horrible half century.”

That’s why place-based activism by ecologically concerned citizens is so critical; they, their children and their children’s children will live with the effects of these disasters long after the CEOs and government officials of today have moved on and closed their files.

Stephen Bede Scharper is author of the just-published For Earth’s Sake: Toward a Compassionate Ecology (Novalis). His column appears monthly.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.